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Saturday, July 28, 2012

White Mother Buys Black Dolls for Latina Daughter

Princess Tiana by Robert Tonner

Princess Tiana (although not this exact one) is discussed in the article, "I’m White, My Daughter is Latina, and I Buy Black Dolls." Last night I stumbled upon this April 11, 2011, article published by New Latina while searching for something else and thought I'd share the link here.

Hello I've been following your articles for a while now, and have been introduced to some new artist through your articles. I am here in Austin TX. Please check out our meet up group and join us. We would love to have you as a honorary member!

Hello Doll Party - I just visited your link and am happy to be an honory member. Thank you for the invite. I hope you are able to grow the group. It will be wonderful connecting with fellow Texas black-doll enthusiasts!

Very nice article. For me, it brings to mind my experiences when my son was very young. He was born in 1979 and we were living in Richmond VA at the time. We lived in the university district, with a black neighborhood to one side, our Day Care lady lived there. There was a very white neighborhood to the other side and many of the people there had.. to be polite, a limited understanding of the modern world. My son and I are both white. But I wanted him to form a picture of the world that included everyone. We weren't looking for dolls, but for illustrated story books. I was looking for simple, possitive stories that could be about any child, but where the illustrations were of dark skinned families. They were very difficult to find. We finally came up with 'Corduroy' and 'Bill and the Fish' which is a primary reader about a boy and day who go fishing. Both turned out to be big favorites at my house. My son did grow up to become an accepting young man, who has had all kinds of friends drawn from all the different cities and neighborhoods he's lived in. During his teen years when he'd encounter less accepting white kids who might have pulled him into their view of things, he deliberately thought about how he could do the opposite, how he could change their thinking.I made a lot of mistakes as a parent, but this is the one area where I know I got it right.

Kudos to you Mary for raising your son in the way he should go (and think) -- accepting people as people, not based on color or any other exterior attribute different from his own.

I made a concerted effort to surround my children with positive images of African American people for a different reason. I did not have to expose them to white culture because it surrounded them in mass media and literature, including school text books. My attempt was to shower them with positive images of people who looked like them to counteract any negative subliminal messages about African Americans that they might encounter throughout their impressionable years. As a result, I raised a queen and a prince who are well aware of their greatness, yet can accept others at face value without prejudging.

This is a great article. I always have steered my nieces and nephews towards dolls of color as well. We are a multicultural family and their dolls showed that. There has always been diversity in the doll collection :O)

Thanks for that link! I have seen quite a few white kids choose a black doll on their own while I've been loitering in the toy isle. I don't know why but I'm always surprised when they do. I think that's more my issue than theirs though.

I think I'm a kid-toy-aisle stalker, too. My interest lies in what types of dolls are most popular among them. I recall seeing teen girls looking at the Monster High dolls and one telling the others which ones she was going to get next. They had to be about 15 or 16. Even though the dolls were MH, I was happy to see girls in that age group still interested in dolls.

Another time a little girl was eyeing an Alexis LIV doll that she wanted her motorized chair-bound granny to buy her that day, but Granny told her she had to wait. As Granny wheeled herself onto the next aisle, the girl lagged behind examining Alexis' box. I confided in her that I had that doll. She was surprised, "You do?" "Yep, I do and I hope your granny gets it for you." I said.

Disclaimer

Any links that I share or any blogs I write are for informational purposes only, and are not a warranty or guarantee, expressed or implied, that your experience with a vendor or company will be the same as mine. I am not affiliated with any of the companies whose dolls I buy or write about.

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